Pigs ‘swam for days’ in Florence floodwaters. Now they won’t leave each other’s side

Rescue pigs Jax and Flo are shown sleeping at University of Tennessee Veterinary Medical Center where they were taken for treatment after Hurricane Florence in North Carolina. ZIGGY'S REFUGE FARM SANCTUARY

Rescue pigs Jax and Flo are shown sleeping at University of Tennessee Veterinary Medical Center where they were taken for treatment after Hurricane Florence in North Carolina. ZIGGY'S REFUGE FARM SANCTUARY

A pair of pigs found frenzied and pummeled by Hurricane Florence are in better ways now, taking comfort in each other’s company as they heal, according to their rescuers.

Ziggy’s Refuge, a Providence, N.C., animal sanctuary run by Kristin Hartness and Jay Yontz, has posted constant updates on the pigs, named Jax and Flo, since the group helped rescue them.

“They were both a terrified, nervous wreck when they were first found, and both were in awful shape, covered in cuts and bruises, coughing up water for days, and on top of this, Jax was unable to open his eyes,” the group wrote in a Monday Facebook post.

“But the first night they met, we walked into the trailer where they were quarantined and they were snuggled up sleeping like this; they have done so ever since.”

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Florence brought record rainfall and devastating flooding to eastern North Carolina last month. Odds were considerably against the animals making it out of Florence alive – much less a commercial hog farm to begin with, a HuffPost report noted.

The N.C. Department of Agriculture estimated 5,500 pigs were killed in the storm, along with several million chickens and turkeys, The News & Observer reported.

So far 4.1 million chickens and turkeys, and 5,500 hogs are dead in North Carolina from Hurricane Florence wind and floods. The numbers are expected to increase this week. The livestock death toll doubles that of Hurricane Matthew in 2016.

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But these swine and other animals managed to survive, with the help of the refuge group.

“Jax and Flo were rescued separately from Hurricane Florence floodwaters after their CAFOs (factory farm sheds) flooded,” the group wrote. “Thousands of their fellow pigs drowned inside submerged sheds, but Jax and Flo made it out alive and swam for days before rescuers found them.”

Doctors determined Flo had a cough caused by pneumonia and that Jax’s vision issues were twofold – “ulcers on the inside of the eyelid as well as entropion (eyelids rolled inward towards the eye),” the sanctuary wrote in an update.

“It really is just amazing how trusting they are despite everything they went through,” Hartness said, according to the Danville Register & Bee. “But they can sense they’re loved.”

A North Carolina woman left her home due to flooding caused by Hurricane Florence but asked the Humane Society of Missouri’s Disaster Response Team to check on her dog that she left behind. Rescuers found the house after three tries -- and Soshe.

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